Digital Estate Planning
Summary: Pierce and the study group pay a visit to Hawthorne Enterprises after Pierce is summoned to discuss his inheritance with his deceased father's former right-hand man, Gilbert Lawson (guest star Giancarlo Esposito, "Breaking Bad"). The study group goes with him for moral support and must all pitch in to play the video game of their life on Pierce's behalf - or risk losing his inheritance. Plot When Pierce Hawthorne is invited a warehouse with instructions to bring along his seven closest friends, he invites the members of the study group to accompany him. Those in the study group are the only ones to show up with actor LeVar Burton as a "maybe." Upon arrival, the study group is greeted by Pierce's deceased father Cornelius Hawthorne's (voiced by Larry Cedar) assistant of thirty years and estate executor, Gilbert Lawson (Giancarlo Esposito). He informs them of his (former) position and of Cornelius's last will and testament: his dying wish was for Pierce and seven of his closest friends to play a video game that was developed by a team of Chinese programmers hired by Cornelius over the course of thirty years in a response to a request made by Pierce in 1979 to invest in video games. The group enters a stylized fourth generation video game world. They are informed by the in-game voice recording of Cornelius that, as punishment for questioning the economic viability of moist towelettes, Pierce and his friends must compete to reach the castle at the end of the game to win the inheritance. The group rejects the idea of playing to steal Pierce's inheritance; Gilbert, taking on the role of the seventh player, reveals that he intends to do so himself. With complete knowledge of the game, he easily kills the group's characters, sending them back to the start of the game. After restarting, the group arrives at a town where Abed seemingly falls in love with an NPC named Hilda. While exploring the town, Britta mixes random ingredients in a cauldron into what she assumes is a strength potion while Jeff believes it to be poison. Meanwhile, Annie and Shirley accidentally kill the town's blacksmith and wife (Hilda's parents) and steal everything from the shop before burning it down to cover their tracks. Having leveled up significantly, Gilbert appears and begins easily overpowering the group. After killing Britta, however, Gilbert drinks the potion she made and dies, which turned out to be poison as Jeff had correctly assumed. Starting back at the beginning again, Gilbert becomes frustrated and decides to use cheat codes to turn his character invincible. The group continues playing while Abed stays back in town to help Hilda rebuild her life. After beating most of the game, the group finds the 'white crystal' needed to enter the castle on the last level. They are again confronted by Gilbert, who despite only having been playing for a short time, is invincible to their attacks and possesses numerous items. He easily kills the study group and takes the crystal for himself. Jeff and Pierce realize he is cheating and angrily confront him. In a shocking revelation, Gilbert reveals that he is the bastard offspring of Cornelius's affair with Pierce's childhood nanny's "hot cousin." He further claims that he has a greater right to the fortune than Pierce, having been more of a son to Cornelius than him. The group starts from the beginning and return to the town where they left Abed. To their surprise, they discover that he has erected an enormous castle and has an endless amount of resources to build whatever they desire. Gilbert arrives at the final stage of the game, where he is greeted by Cornelius as an NPC. Cornelius demands that Gilbert sign a legal agreement that forbids him from acknowledging their genealogical relationship. He refuses, prompting Cornelius to turn hostile and attack him. The study group arrives heavily armed with new equipment and defeats Cornelius at the cost of their lives, leaving Gilbert free to claim the throne of Castle Hawkthorne. However, he rejects it, saying that he does not deserve the prize. In real life, the study group decides to forfeit. Pierce has concluded that Gilbert was more of a son to Cornelius than he ever was and has more right to the inheritance. Gilbert thanks them and beats the game, winning the inheritance. He offers to treat the study group to margaritas as a form of thanks and is shown to be bonding with Pierce. As the group leaves, Abed stays behind to download Hilda out of the game onto a flash drive before leaving. End tag Troy and Abed find an abandoned baby on the study room table and immediately begin planning how they will raise it together. Abed offers to take on a job, and Troy begins to cry at the thought of having to stay home while Abed climbs the corporate ladder. The baby's mother then climbs out from under the table, where she was retrieving a dropped toy, and takes the baby out with her. As the mother is leaving, the baby babbles Abed's "cool, cool, cool" catchphrase. Recurring themes Continuity: Running gags: Gay, he is so gay!: 'Pierce comments that Jeff "was really good in there" as the group leaves "Gay Island". '''My other half: '''Troy is jealous of Abed's relationship with Hilda, and in the end tag, the two plan to raise a baby together. Pop culture references: *'Well read: When Jeff says, "Let's find the Tin Man's heart later", it is a reference to "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" by L. Frank Baum. *'Name that tune:' 8-bit versions of various themes from Community soundtrack serve as the soundtrack for the game. *'Breaking Bad:' Pierce suggests that his father was into 'meth'; Giancarlo Esposito plays Gustavo Fring in Breaking Bad, a crystal meth kingpin. Whenever he--Gilbert--mentions that 'family can make a person do crazy things,' it is a reference to Breaking Bad's main character Walter White's reason for getting into cooking crystal meth. *'''American Constitution: '''The text of the "legal document" Cornelius's agreement with Gilbert is actually the opening lines of Article 1, Section 2, Clause 3 of the U.S. Constitution Meta references: Quotes Category:Season 3 Episodes Category:Community Episodes Category:Self-contained escapade episodes